Originally published in South China Morning Post, June 2011
British Architect Thomas Heatherwick is slowly changing the face of Hong Kong, writes Pavan Shamdasani
Colonialists often wistfully long for the lost Victorian and Edwardian buildings of yesteryear. They have a point: compare classic photos of our early colonial days with the towering skyscrapers that now dominate our city, and one feels a sense of loss, with our slapdash skyline coming off cold and soulless.
But some of the greatest cities in the world have kept their sense of individuality, the connecting factor being they were all defined by a singular architect’s vision: Barcelona’s stunning baroque modernism was due to the preeminent design mind of Antoni Gaudi, Glasgow’s elegantly restrained style came from the talent of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
In a similar fashion, British architect Thomas Heatherwick is hoping to be the man for Hong Kong, making his mark on the omnipresent structural surroundings of our vast metropolis by building on our sense of history and culture.
To say that Heatherwick is versatile is an understatement: he came to international prominence with his “seed cathedral” – Britain’s pavilion at last year’s Shanghai World Expo – but for almost 15 years has experimented with projects great and small. From the immense US$250 million Teesside power station to the spinning top-inspired “spun chair”, his is a design mind not limited by size or scale.
At different times in his career labelled as an architect, engineer, inventor, product designer and urban planner, his sensibilities lack a thoroughly specified or set-out style. For a city as chaotic as Hong Kong, one often at odds with its own sense of architectural definition, the attribute is a blessing.
“We try not to bring in any assumptions or preconceptions to the design,” he says. “Our job is to have a process that we apply to each project whatever scale it is, whether it’s something small or large, we’re interested in how you can apply similar values and ambitions.”
It’s his adaptable sense of application that initially brought him to the attention of the local public with Pacific Place. And while it might seem strange for a man often associated with pioneering projects to take on something as commercial as a shopping mall redesign, that’s exactly what separates Heatherwick from his contemporaries.
His interests lie in the factors behind a project’s relevance, stimulated by how a building corresponds to a city’s urban context. Hong Kong’s concentrated landscape is unique, and in Pacific Place Heatherwick saw our “first true public space” – which is to say, an environment that brings people together, be it families, friends, colleagues or couples.
“It isn’t just a shopping mall; there are thousands of people who work and live and are based around and interwoven to the shopping environment,” he says. “It’s more like a town than a single shopping mall.”
Comparing it to “open-heart surgery”, Heatherwick’s HK$1.5 billion budget will allow for numerous new hotels, restaurants, bridges and other small touches to be rolled out over the next three years. The changes might seem minor to regular mall visitors, but Heatherwick is a firm believer in the philosophy of less is more: “It’s actually through many smaller projects as well that you really demonstrate our commitment to a city being special for its residents,” he says.
Case in point: Southorn Playground. In 2003, Heatherwick was invited by the Wan Chai District Council to transform the district’s main outdoor space into a venue that would accommodate all walks of city life. Heatherwick was intrigued by the wonderful contrast of a playground surrounded by skyscrapers, and he quickly accepted.
After 18 months of intense research, Heatherwick finally revealed his proposal: the basketball courts would be elevated to allow for a walkway underneath; the football pitch lowered to remove the seedy seating stands; 400 metres would be allocated for open space, where greenery and comfortable seating would entice people in the vicinity to actually enjoy Hong Kong’s outdoor spaces for a change.
The proposal created 50 per cent more public space, and Heatherwick had found a developer willing to put in half the cost of construction if the government matched the rest. But as most Hong Kongers know, more often than not the government can’t quite justify a property project that doesn’t end in profit. Heatherwick’s proposal fell by the wayside.
“For me, there’s strong symbolism in not being able to make a project like that happen,” says Heatherwick. “I’m totally confused that the government is interested in giving money back to the population and yet there is a prime piece of public space in the centre of the city that would need a relatively tiny amount of money to develop. I’m still quietly hoping that our other projects have such positive feedback that it jogs people’s memory. There should still be room for developments like this alongside projects such as West Kowloon; they make a big difference to a city.”
Indeed, one of the few projects the government is willing to spend money on is the endlessly delayed West Kowloon Cultural District. While his studio never submitted a proposal of their own, Heatherwick is positive about the project, but wary of our city’s wealth obstructing a natural cultural landscape.
“The Foster masterplan is great and flexible, but it’s now all down to how it gets implemented. There are many cities in Asia where there’s increasing wealth and general prosperity,” he says. “Often, that’s the moment when there is a sudden move to try to grab culture as if it’s an easily grab-able thing, which gets stereotyped as if it’s just about having a giant opera house, a giant museum, a giant theatre. It’s important that Hong Kong doesn’t follow the same formula; that its new cultural offerings don’t feel like they have been bought in from around the world.”
To Heatherwick, culture has to be distinctive and special, a manifestation based on the city’s people and place. “My fear is, you mustn’t be able to recognise familiar styles of global architecture when you look at the buildings that get built and the spaces that get made,” he says. “Because those global names are doing the same all over the world. I’m interested in how Hong Kong becomes more particular and distinctive, so it’s very important that it invents its own way of doing things.”
With that in mind, Heatherwick’s focus for the far future is firmly rooted in Hong Kong. He’s currently working on a 180-metre hotel tower in the burgeoning district of Sheung Wan, the plans of which are unfortunately kept closely under wraps, but has numerous other city plans he hopes to one day achieve.
Two in particular stand out: the first is similar to his proposal for Southorn Playground; the Happy Valley Racecourse is a unique venue set smack in the middle of our urban jungle, but the surrounding buildings and environment have seen little rejuvenation in decades.He hopes to one day work with the Hong Kong Jockey Club to transform the district into a destination that naturally blends city with country.
The second project isn’t so much an extravagance, as a requirement: “Hong Kong needs to build waste power plants in the coming years,” he says. “I believe that the infrastructure of a city can possibly give an even stronger statement about the values of a society than the more obvious opera houses and art galleries. We previously designed a biomass fuelled power station for a site in the north of England, and we’d love to have the opportunity to take on a similar design challenge in Hong Kong.”
And while his concentration might be temporarily elsewhere – in Britain, he’s working on the 2012 Olympic Cauldron, a Benedictine monastery and a redesign of the London Bus, all of which will blend classic with contemporary – Hong Kong’s unparalleled sense of clashing cultures, the illogical with the fantastic, is what will keep him coming back.
“When I first came here, my breath was taken away by this extraordinary city that combined densely packed towers, in some kind of extraordinary harmony with jungle-clad mountains – a phenomenal overlapping of nature and urban life,” he says. “Hong Kong is an extraordinarily strong city, and it feels like it should just build on what it has.”